The present invention is especially adapted for assembling bakery pans into a stack in which each layer of the stack consists of a single pan. Typically, prior art apparatus for this purpose takes the form of an infeed conveyor which conveys pans in succession onto a lift which is indexed downwardly upon the receipt of each article until a stack is formed. The stack is then discharged from the lift, after which the lift is elevated to its upper limit of movement to commence the formation of the next stack. Because a certain amount of time is required to move the completed stack of pans clear of the lift and to subsequently return the lift to its upper limit of movement, it is necessary to interrupt the flow of pans to the lift while the two sequential operations are being performed.
The present invention has, as one object, the provision of a mechanism in which pans can be fed more rapidly and continuously into the stack forming apparatus without the necessity of interrupting the flow of pans during the stack discharge and lift return steps.
Another object of the invention is to provide a stacker which operates in conjunction with the demand for pans downstream in the bakery production line.
Prior art patents of possible interest are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,101,851; 3,897,877; 3,366,253; 3,837,140; 3,533,517; 3,429,459; 2,849,236; 2,414,059; 2,375,241; Canadian Pat. No. 543,070.